Priceline Rises 4% on FYQ1 EPS Beat, Higher Q2 Rev View

By Tiernan Ray

Shares of travel booker Priceline.com (PCLN) are up $27.52, or 4%, at $706.01 in late trading after the company this afternoon reported Q4 revenue that was in line with what analysts were expecting and profit that beat, and projected revenue this quarter ahead of expectations but profit below consensus.

Revenue in the three months ended in December rose 20%, year over year, to $1.19 billion, yielding EPS of $6.77, excluding some costs.

The Street had been modeling $1.19 billion and $6.53.

The “gross travel bookings” of all the firm's properties rose 33%, year over year, said Priceline, to $6.6 billion.

CEO Jeffery Boyd called the results “strong,” and said international bookings growth of 43% “evidenced the resilience of the business in 2012 despite economic uncertainty in our core European market.”

For the current quarter, Priceline projected year-over-year bookings growth of 30% to 37%, and revenue growth of 17% to 24%, equaling a range of $1.21 billion to $1.25 billion, with EPS in a range of $4.90 to $5.30.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.